Pu-Xian Min

Puxian (Hinghwa Romanized: Pó-sing-gṳ̂/莆仙語; simplified Chinese: 莆仙话; traditional Chinese: 莆仙話; pinyin: Púxiānhuà), also known as Pu-Xian Chinese, Puxian Min, Xinghua, Henghwa or Hinghwa (Hing-hua̍-gṳ̂/興化語; simplified Chinese: 兴化语; traditional Chinese: 興化語; pinyin: Xīnghuàyǔ), is a Sinitic language that forms a branch of Min Chinese.

Puxian
莆仙語/莆仙話/興化話
Pó-sing-gṳ̂/Pó-sing-uā/Hing-hua̍-uā
Native toChina, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan (Wuqiu), United States (California)
RegionFujian (Putian, parts of Fuzhou and Quanzhou)
EthnicityPutianese (Han Chinese)
Native speakers
2.6 million (2000)[1]
Dialects
Chinese characters
Hinghwa Romanized(báⁿ-uā-ci̍)
Language codes
ISO 639-3cpx
Glottologpuxi1243
Linguasphere79-AAA-id
  Pu-Xian Min
Bible in Hinghwa (Xinghua) Romanised (Genesis), published by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

The native language of Putian people, Puxian is spoken mostly in Fujian province, particularly in Putian city and Xianyou County (after which it is named), parts of Fuzhou, and parts of Quanzhou. It is also widely used as the mother tongue in Wuqiu Township, Kinmen County, Fujian Province, Republic of China (Taiwan). More than 2000 people in Shacheng, Fuding in northern Fujian also speak Puxian.[2] There are minor differences between the dialects of Putian and Xianyou.

Overseas populations of Puxian speakers exist in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Speakers of Puxian are also known as Henghua, Hinghua, or Xinghua.

History

Before the year 979 AD, the Puxian region was part of Quanzhou county and people there spoke a form of Southern Min.[3][4] due to its origin in the past.

In 979 AD, during the Song Dynasty, the region was administratively separated from Quanzhou and the Chinese spoken there developed separately from the rest of Southern Min. Due to its proximity with Fuzhou, it absorbed some elements of Eastern Min, such as morphophonemic alternations in initial consonants, but its basic linguistic characteristics, i.e. grammar and most of its lexicon, are based on Southern Min. It also shares denasalization of historical nasal consonants and vocalic nasalization with Southern Min varieties.[5]

Puxian Min has 62% cognates with Quanzhou dialect (Southern Min) and only 39% cognates with Fuzhou dialect (Eastern Min).[6]

Characteristics

Differences with Southern Min dialects

Puxian differs from most Southern Min varieties in several ways:

  • The vowel 'a' is replaced by /ɒ/ (o̤) in most cases, e.g. 腳 ko̤ "leg".
  • The vowel 'ư' /ɯ/ is replaced by /y/ ('ü'), e.g. 魚 hṳ "fish".
  • In Putian 'ng' has changed to /uŋ/ except after zero initial and h- (notation: ng), e.g. 湯 tung "soup".
  • The vowel /e/ is often replaced by /ɒ/ o̤, e.g. 馬 bo̤ "horse".
  • Where Quanzhou has 'ĩ' and Zhangzhou has 'ẽ', the corresponding Putian vowel is 'ã', e.g. 病 baⁿ "sick", where ⁿ indicates a nasalized vowel.
  • The vowel 'io' is replaced by 'iau' (notation: a̤u), e.g. 笑 ciao "laugh". This also holds for nasalized vowels, e.g. 張 da̤uⁿ corresponding to Zhangzhou tioⁿ.
  • Nasals 'm' sometimes occur in place of voiced stops 'b', e.g. 夢 mang vs. Quanzhou bang.
  • Initial consonant 'ng' replaces 'g' e.g. 五 'ngo' vs. Quanzhou 'go'.
  • There is a loss of distinction between voiced and unvoiced stops, e.g. the sounds /b/ and /p/ both correspond to the same phoneme and occur in free variation.

Borrowings from Eastern Min
  • Wife 老媽 (Lau Ma)

Phonology

Puxian has 15 consonants, including the zero onset, the same as most other Min varieties. Puxian is distinctive for having a lateral fricative [ɬ] instead of the [s] in other Min varieties, similar to Taishanese.

Puxian has 53 finals and 6 phonemic tones.

Initials
Puxian Min Initial Chart
  BilabialAlveolarLateralVelarGlottal
Plosive unaspirated p 巴 (b) t 打 (d) k 家 (g) ʔ 烏
aspirated pʰ 彭 (p) tʰ 他 (t) kʰ 卡 (k)
Nasals m 麻 (m) n 拿 (n) ŋ 雅 (ng)
Fricatives voiceless ɬ 沙 (s) h 下 (h)
voiced β*
Affricates unaspirated ts 渣 (c)
aspirated tsʰ 査 (ch)
Approximant l 拉 (l)

Finals

Puxian Min has 53 finals (including nasalised finals)

Finals
VowelDiphthongNasalGlottal
no glide a 鴉 (a) au 拗 (au) aŋ 王 (ang) aʔ 壓 (ah)
ɒ 奥 (o̤) ɒŋ 用 (o̤ng) ɒʔ 屋 (o̤h)
ɔ 科 (eo) ɔu 烏 (o) ɔŋ 温 (eong) oʔ 熨 (eoh)
e 裔 (a̤) ai 愛 (ai) ɛŋ 煙 (eng) ɛʔ 黑 (eh)
œ 改 (e̤) œŋ 換 (e̤ng) œʔ 郁 (e̤h)
ŋ 伓 (ng)
/-i-/ i 衣 (i) iu 油 (iu) iŋ 引 (ing) iʔ 益 (ih)
ia 夜 (ia) iau 要 (a̤u) iaŋ 鹽 (iang) iaʔ 葉 (iah)
/-u-/ u 夫 (u) ui 位 (ui) uŋ 黄 (ng)
ua 画 (ua) ɔi/ue 歪 (oi) uaŋ 碗 (uang) uaʔ 活 (uah)
/-y-/ y 余 (ṳ) yŋ 恩 (ṳng) yʔ 役 (ṳh)
yɒ 安 (io̤ⁿ) yɒŋ 羊 (io̤ng) yɒʔ 藥 (io̤h)
Chinese character 黃 (ńg) 方 (hng) 漲 (dn̂g) 幫 (bng) 光 (gng) 兩 (nn̄g) 毛 (mńg)
Putian uŋ huŋ tuŋ puŋ kuŋ nuŋ muŋ
Xianyou ŋ̍ hŋ̍ tŋ̍ pŋ̍ kŋ̍ nŋ̍ mŋ̍
Xianyou dialect nasals
IPA ã ẽ ɛ̃ ĩ ỹ ɒ̃ iã yã uã aĩ aũ uĩ iũ
Romanization aⁿ a̤ⁿ a̤ⁿ e̤ⁿ o̤ⁿ iaⁿ io̤ⁿ uaⁿ oiⁿ a̤uⁿ
Romanized IPA ã ẽ ø̃ ɒ̃ iã yɒ̃ uã oĩ ɛũ
Chinese character 爭 (caⁿ) 還 (há̤ⁿ) 段 (dē̤ⁿ) 三 (so̤ⁿ) 鼎 (diáⁿ) 張 (da̤uⁿ) 看 (kua̍ⁿ) 飯 (bōiⁿ) 贏 (ió̤ⁿ)
Xianyou tsã hĩ tỹ sɒ̃ tiã tiũ kʰuã puĩ yɒ̃
Putian tsa hi tø sɒ tia tiau kʰua puai yɒ

Tone
Tone Ing-báⁿ 陰平 Ing-siō̤ng 陰上 Ing-kṳ̍ 陰去 Ing-ci̍h 陰入 Ió̤ng-báⁿ 陽平 Ió̤ng-kṳ̍ 陽去 Ió̤ng-ci̍h 陽入
Putian ˥˧˧ (533) ˦˥˧ (453) ˦˨ (42) ʔ˨˩ (ʔ21) ˩˧ (13) ˩ (11) ʔ˦ (ʔ4)
Xianyou ˥˦˦ (544) ˧˧˨ (332) ˥˨ (52) ʔ˨ (ʔ2) ˨˦ (24) ˨˩ (21) ʔ˦ (ʔ4)

Register
Xianyou dialect register chart
Chinese character 買 黃 生 領 師 兩 火 壁 著
Colloquial pe ŋ̍ ɬã, tsʰã nia ɬai nŋ̍ hoe pia tieu
Literary mai hɒŋ ɬɛŋ liŋ ɬo løŋ hɒ piʔ tøʔ

Assimilation

新婦房　ɬiŋ pu paŋ　→　ɬiŋ mu βaŋ

青草 tsʰɔŋ tsʰau　→　tsʰɔŋ nau

Comparison between Putian Min and Quanzhou Min Nan
Chinese character 埋 (lit.) 萬 (lit.) 人 (lit.) 入 危 (lit.) 逆 內 諾
Putian mai man tsin tsiʔ kui kiʔ tue tɔʔ
Quanzhou bai ban lin dzip ɡui ɡiak lue lɔk

Sentence-final particles
  • ah (啊): used to express exclamation.
  • lah (啦): used to stress or for adding emotional effect to your words.
  • neh (呢): used for questioning.
  • nɔ (唔): used to express emotion.
  • yɔu (哟): used to denote obviousness or contention.

Romanization
Main article: Hinghwa Romanized

Hing-hua̍ báⁿ-uā-ci̍ (興化平話字) is the Romanization system for Puxian Min. It has 23 letters: a a̤ b c ch d e e̤ g h i k l m n ng o o̤ p s t u ṳ.

The Romanization only needs five tone marks for seven tones:

  • 陰平 Ing-báⁿ　(unmarked)
  • 陰上 Ing-siō̤ng　ˆ (â)
  • 陰去 Ing-kṳ̍　ˈ (a̍)
  • 陰入 Ing-ci̍h (unmarked)
  • 陽平 Ió̤ng-báⁿ　́ (á)
  • 陽去 Ió̤ng-kṳ̍　- (ā)
  • 陽入 Ió̤ng-ci̍h　ˈh (a̍h)　
IPA Puxian Min (Xinghua) Fuzhou
pʰ p p
tʰ t t
kʰ k k
p b b
t d d
k g g
tsʰ ch ch
ts c c
Tone 陰平 Ing-báⁿ 陰上 Ing-siō̤ng 陰去 Ing-kṳ̍ 陰入 Ing-ci̍h 陽平 Ió̤ng-báⁿ 陽去 Ió̤ng-kṳ̍ 陽入 Ió̤ng-ci̍h
Báⁿ-uā-ci̍ a â a̍ ah á ā a̍h
Pe̍h-ōe-jī a á à ah â ā a̍h

References
  1. Puxian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. "A Further Study on Puxian Dialect Zone in Aoyao Village,Fuding--《Journal of Longyan University》2013年01期". en.cnki.com.cn.
  3. "世界上根本無閩南語 ~ 王華南". www.taiwanus.net.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-06-21. Retrieved 2015-06-19.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. Lien, Chinfa (August 17–19, 1998). "Denasalization, Vocalic Nasalization and Related Issues in Southern Min: A Dialectal and Comparative Perspective". International Symposium on Linguistic Change and the Chinese Dialects.
  6. 李如龍、陳章太:《論閩方言內部的主要差異》,《閩語硏究》 pg 58-138. 北京:語文出版社, 1991.
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